The Times visited a sprawling power station that has been hit by russian attacks on multiple occasions but can still produce some energy, albeit at a greatly reduced capacity.
About half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed or occupied by Russia so far, leading to regular blackouts across the entire country, as well as planned power cuts to conserve energy. As winter continues, things are set to get worse.
Checkpoints:
- Amid the high-voltage power lines, vast impact craters are filled with debris. Transformers, which previously allowed the safe transfer of electricity to the national power grid, are mangled and charred. A powerful bomb had shattered every single window on one side of the power plant.
Yet despite the unrelenting russian attacks, Ukraine has so far managed to avoid the apocalyptic scenario of a total energy collapse in big cities — largely due to the heroic efforts and sacrifice of thousands of power plant employees
- “We work days and nights to get things back up and running again after attacks,” says Serhii, his face etched with tiredness. “We sleep a few hours a night, wherever we can. Everyone is willing to work round the clock to keep the power on. There’s a limit, though, to what we can do without new equipment or spare parts.”
Read more here – The Times.
